What began as a creative response to one of the hospitality industry’s most challenging periods has become an incredible Canadian business success story. With a development pipeline now reaching 120 locations across Canada, Ghost Taco is proving that big opportunities can grow from local roots, entrepreneurial resilience and a community that believes in its businesses.
We caught up with Samantha Buckley, Owner and Co-Founder of Ghost Taco, to learn how a small Newmarket pop-up launched during the pandemic evolved into a growing Canadian restaurant brand, and why the community that supported its earliest days remains at the heart of its success.
From Survival to Something Bigger
In 2021, as the COVID-19 pandemic brought the events industry to a standstill, the team behind EVENTMRKT in Newmarket faced a question familiar to many business owners: How do we keep moving forward when everything around us has stopped?
The answer came from looking at the resources they already had and finding a creative way to put them to work.
They started selling tacos.
What began as a temporary pop-up designed to keep employees working, the kitchen operating and the business afloat quickly developed into something much bigger.
There was never a grand plan to build a national restaurant brand. Ghost Taco was born out of necessity, creativity and a determination to keep moving forward during one of the hospitality industry’s most challenging periods.
The concept was simple, but its personality was anything but ordinary.
Fun, a little irreverent and unapologetically different, Ghost Taco quickly found an audience across Newmarket and York Region. Customers embraced the food, connected with the brand and kept coming back.
Local businesses collaborated, promoted the brand and helped spread the word. Families became regulars, customers introduced friends and word-of-mouth support continued to build.
That early community support was instrumental in transforming a temporary solution into a lasting business opportunity.
In December 2023, Ghost Taco opened its first permanent restaurant in Newmarket, marking a significant milestone in its journey from pop-up concept to established restaurant brand.
As demand continued to grow, the founders began exploring franchising, additional locations and the operational systems needed to support a much larger business.
What began as a way to survive was quickly becoming something none of them could have imagined.
A Major Milestone: Taking Ghost Taco Across Canada
Ghost Taco recently announced a series of significant developments that will help accelerate its national expansion.
The company finalized a partnership with Happy Belly Food Group, which acquired a 50% interest in Ghost Taco. This was followed by three major Area Development Agreements: one for 45 locations across Ontario, another for 50 locations across Alberta and British Columbia, and most recently, a 24-location agreement covering Atlantic Canada.
Together with its existing restaurants, these agreements bring Ghost Taco’s total development pipeline to 120 locations across Canada, marking an extraordinary milestone for a business that began as a small Newmarket pop-up.
Seeing those numbers attached to a business that started during one of the most challenging periods in the hospitality industry’s history is both exciting and emotional for the founders.
Just a few years ago, Ghost Taco was an idea created to keep people employed and a business operating through an unprecedented crisis. Today, it has the opportunity to become a nationally recognized Canadian restaurant brand, stretching from coast to coast.
But the significance of this milestone goes far beyond expansion.
It’s about recognizing how far the business has come, the people who helped make it possible and the responsibility that comes with the next chapter.
The team’s vision has never been simply to open restaurants for the sake of growth. Rather, it’s about building a recognizable Canadian brand with long-term staying power, a distinct personality and a customer experience that remains consistent regardless of location.
While the development agreements represent an exciting opportunity, the real work lies ahead.
Signing agreements is one thing. Opening successful restaurants, building great teams, supporting franchise partners and consistently delivering on the Ghost Taco experience is what will ultimately define the brand’s success.
Growing a Business Without Losing Its Identity
Rapid expansion brings exciting opportunities, but it also introduces challenges that require business owners to evolve alongside their companies.
One of the biggest learning experiences for Ghost Taco has been the transition from operating a single restaurant to developing a business model that can be successfully replicated across multiple locations.
Everything from food costs, staffing and training to technology, marketing, franchising and organizational culture has required careful consideration.
What works when the founders are personally involved in the day-to-day operations of one restaurant doesn’t necessarily translate to managing five, ten or eventually fifty locations.
At a certain point, the instincts, creativity and energy that helped build the business must be supported by reliable systems and processes that others can execute.
For Ghost Taco, the challenge has been creating that structure without losing the personality and authenticity that customers connected with in the first place.
The partnership with Happy Belly Food Group represents an important part of that evolution, bringing additional experience, expertise and infrastructure to support the next phase of growth.
Bringing in an external partner was a significant decision. As founders, there is naturally a strong connection to what they’ve built, making it important to find a partner who understands both their long-term vision and the elements that make Ghost Taco unique.
The goal isn’t to change the brand that customers have come to love. It’s to strengthen it and create opportunities to bring that same experience to communities across Canada.
Growth only matters if the brand becomes stronger along the way.
Proudly Rooted in Newmarket
While Ghost Taco’s ambitions now extend across the country, its connection to Newmarket remains central to its identity.
Newmarket isn’t simply where Ghost Taco opened its first restaurant. It’s where the concept was created, where the team learned, experimented and developed the brand, and where the community helped turn an uncertain idea into something extraordinary.
More importantly, it’s where people took a chance on a new business during an incredibly difficult time.
When Ghost Taco first launched, it wasn’t an established restaurant brand with multiple locations, national expansion agreements or significant financial backing.
It was a local business trying to survive.
And the community showed up.
Customers supported the pop-up, local business owners shared their posts, organizations helped create connections and families continued bringing friends through the doors.
Those seemingly small interactions had a lasting impact.
It’s a reminder that businesses rarely grow in isolation. Behind every success story are people, relationships and opportunities that help entrepreneurs take the next step.
One customer, one collaboration, one introduction or one recommendation can make an enormous difference, particularly when a business is just getting started.
It’s also a powerful example of why supporting local businesses matters.
For the Central York Chamber of Commerce, Ghost Taco’s journey reflects the importance of building a connected business community where entrepreneurs can collaborate, access opportunities and support one another.
As Ghost Taco works toward a development pipeline of 120 locations across Canada, its Newmarket restaurant will remain its flagship location, with every future restaurant tracing its roots back to Central York.
The team also hopes the company’s growth will create opportunities to give back to the community that supported it from the beginning, including continued involvement with local organizations, sports teams, businesses and community initiatives.
And perhaps most importantly, Ghost Taco’s story is an opportunity to encourage other local entrepreneurs to think bigger.
Building something meaningful doesn’t always require starting in a major city or having substantial financial backing from day one.
Sometimes, it starts with a kitchen, an idea and a community willing to give that idea a chance.
Lessons in Entrepreneurship: Adapt, Learn and Keep Moving
Looking back on Ghost Taco’s journey, the founders acknowledge that entrepreneurship is rarely as straightforward as a success story might suggest.
There was no guaranteed path from a COVID-era pop-up to a national expansion strategy.
There were mistakes, difficult decisions, operational challenges and plenty of lessons learned along the way.
When asked what advice she would share with other entrepreneurs, Samantha emphasizes the importance of adaptability, community and surrounding yourself with the right people.
One of the biggest lessons is not becoming so attached to an original business plan that you miss the opportunity directly in front of you.
Ghost Taco exists because the team’s original business model was no longer viable during COVID. Rather than waiting for the events industry to recover, the founders focused on what they could do with the resources available to them.
That decision ultimately changed the direction of their business.
Another important lesson is the value of community connections.
While capital, strategy, marketing and growth plans all play critical roles, people can make the greatest difference, especially in the early stages of building a business.
The customer who returns twice in one week. The local business that shares your story. The organization that makes an introduction. The employee who believes in the vision.
These relationships create momentum that can grow into something much larger.
The Ghost Taco team also encourages business owners to become comfortable moving forward before every detail is perfected, while recognizing the difference between moving quickly and moving recklessly.
Their approach to growth can be summarized in five words:
Build. Learn. Measure. Adjust. Repeat.
Being proactive rather than reactive, paying attention to customer feedback, understanding the data and remaining open to change have all been important parts of Ghost Taco’s evolution.
Just as importantly, the founders recognize the value of surrounding themselves with people who bring different strengths, experiences and perspectives.
Samantha credits her fellow co-founders Grant Buckley and Steve Tallis, Ghost Taco’s dedicated employees, franchise partners, local supporters and the expertise that Happy Belly brings to the business for helping shape its continued success.
The journey has reinforced that no entrepreneur builds something significant entirely on their own.
From One Local Idea to Thousands of Opportunities
The most meaningful part of Ghost Taco’s success isn’t necessarily the number of restaurants planned across Canada.
It’s the thousands of smaller moments that made this growth possible.
The first customer who ordered tacos during lockdown. The local business that shared Ghost Taco with its network. The families who became regulars. The employees who believed in what the team was building. And the community that continued showing up as one restaurant became another.
Those moments created the foundation for everything that followed.
As Ghost Taco looks toward a future supported by a development pipeline of 120 locations across Canada, its roots remain firmly planted where it all began: a small taco pop-up inside EVENTMRKT in Newmarket, created during an incredibly uncertain time.
Ghost Taco’s story is as much about the community that believed in the business as it is about the entrepreneurs who built it.
From a temporary pop-up to an emerging national restaurant brand, Ghost Taco demonstrates what’s possible when entrepreneurial resilience, adaptability and strong community connections come together.
Its journey also serves as an important reminder that the businesses making a national impact tomorrow may be the small businesses finding their footing in our community today.
And for Central York, it’s a local success story worth celebrating.
The Central York Chamber of Commerce is proud to spotlight Samantha Buckley and the entire Ghost Taco team as they embark on this exciting next chapter. As a business born and built in Newmarket, Ghost Taco exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit, resilience and community connections that help strengthen our local economy. We look forward to celebrating their continued growth and watching a brand that proudly calls Central York home make its mark across Canada.